cosmos-sdk/docs/validators/validator-setup.md

Validator Setup

::: warning Current Testnet The current testnet is gaia-7005. :::

Before setting up your validator node, make sure you've already gone through the Full Node Setup guide.

Running a Validator Node

Validators are responsible for committing new blocks to the blockchain through voting. A validator's stake is slashed if they become unavailable, double sign a transaction, or don't cast their votes. Please read about Sentry Node Architecture to protect your node from DDOS attacks and to ensure high-availability.

::: danger Warning If you want to become a validator for the Hub's mainnet, you should research security. :::

Create Your Validator

Your cosmosvalpub can be used to create a new validator by staking tokens. You can find your validator pubkey by running:

gaiad tendermint show_validator

Next, craft your gaiacli stake create-validator command:

::: warning Note Don't use more steak thank you have! You can always get more by using the Faucet! :::

gaiacli stake create-validator \
  --amount=5steak \
  --pubkey=$(gaiad tendermint show_validator) \
  --address-validator=<account_cosmosaccaddr>
  --moniker="choose a moniker" \
  --chain-id=gaia-7005 \
  --name=<key_name>

Edit Validator Description

You can edit your validator's public description. This info is to identify your validator, and will be relied on by delegators to decide which validators to stake to. Make sure to provide input for every flag below, otherwise the field will default to empty (--moniker defaults to the machine name).

The --identity can be used as to verify identity with systems like Keybase or UPort. When using with Keybase --identity should be populated with a 16-digit string that is generated with a keybase.io account. It's a cryptographically secure method of verifying your identity across multiple online networks. The Keybase API allows us to retrieve your Keybase avatar. This is how you can add a logo to your validator profile.

gaiacli stake edit-validator
  --address-validator=<account_cosmosaccaddr>
  --moniker="choose a moniker" \
  --website="https://cosmos.network" \
  --identity=6A0D65E29A4CBC8E
  --details="To infinity and beyond!"
  --chain-id=gaia-7005 \
  --name=<key_name>

View Validator Description

View the validator's information with this command:

gaiacli stake validator \
  --address-validator=<account_cosmosaccaddr> \
  --chain-id=gaia-7005

Confirm Your Validator is Running

Your validator is active if the following command returns anything:

gaiacli advanced tendermint validator-set | grep "$(gaiad tendermint show_validator)"

You should also be able to see your validator on the Explorer. You are looking for the bech32 encoded address in the ~/.gaiad/config/priv_validator.json file.

::: warning Note To be in the validator set, you need to have more total voting power than the 100th validator. :::

Common Problems

Problem #1: My validator has voting_power: 0

Your validator has become auto-unbonded. In gaia-7005, we unbond validators if they do not vote on 50 of the last 100 blocks. Since blocks are proposed every ~2 seconds, a validator unresponsive for ~100 seconds will become unbonded. This usually happens when your gaiad process crashes.

Here's how you can return the voting power back to your validator. First, if gaiad is not running, start it up again:

gaiad start

Wait for your full node to catch up to the latest block. Next, run the following command. Note that <cosmosaccaddr> is the address of your validator account, and <name> is the name of the validator account. You can find this info by running gaiacli keys list.

gaiacli stake unrevoke <cosmosaccaddr> --chain-id=gaia-7005 --name=<name>

::: danger Warning If you don't wait for gaiad to sync before running unrevoke, you will receive an error message telling you your validator is still jailed. :::

Lastly, check your validator again to see if your voting power is back.

gaiacli status

You may notice that your voting power is less than it used to be. That's because you got slashed for downtime!

Problem #2: My gaiad crashes because of too many open files

The default number of files Linux can open (per-process) is 1024. gaiad is known to open more than 1024 files. This causes the process to crash. A quick fix is to run ulimit -n 4096 (increase the number of open files allowed) and then restart the process with gaiad start. If you are using systemd or another process manager to launch gaiad this may require some configuration at that level. A sample systemd file to fix this issue is below:

# /etc/systemd/system/gaiad.service
[Unit]
Description=Cosmos Gaia Node
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=ubuntu
WorkingDirectory=/home/ubuntu
ExecStart=/home/ubuntu/go/bin/gaiad start
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=3
LimitNOFILE=4096

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Delegating to a Validator

On the upcoming mainnet, you can delegate Atom to a validator. These delegators can receive part of the validator's fee revenue. Read more about the Cosmos Token Model.

Bond Tokens

On the testnet, we delegate steak instead of Atom. Here's how you can bond tokens to a testnet validator:

gaiacli stake delegate \
  --amount=10steak \
  --address-delegator=<account_cosmosaccaddr> \
  --address-validator=<validator_cosmosaccaddr> \
  --from=<key_name> \
  --chain-id=gaia-7001

While tokens are bonded, they are pooled with all the other bonded tokens in the network. Validators and delegators obtain a percentage of shares that equal their stake in this pool.

NOTE: Don't use more steak thank you have! You can always get more by using the Faucet!

Unbond Tokens

If for any reason the validator misbehaves, or you want to unbond a certain amount of tokens, use this following command. You can unbond a specific amount ofshareseg:`12.1` or all of them `MAX`.

gaiacli stake unbond \
  --address-delegator=<account_cosmosaccaddr> \
  --address-validator=<validator_cosmosaccaddr> \
  --shares=MAX \
  --from=<key_name> \
  --chain-id=gaia-7001

You can check your balance and your stake delegation to see that the unbonding went through successfully.

gaiacli account <account_cosmosaccaddr>

gaiacli stake delegation \
  --address-delegator=<account_cosmosaccaddr> \
  --address-validator=<validator_cosmosaccaddr> \
  --chain-id=gaia-7001

Governance

Governance is the process from which users in the Cosmos Hub can come to consensus on software upgrades, parameters of the mainnet or on custom text proposals. This is done through voting on proposals, which will be submitted by Atom holders on the mainnet.

Some considerations about the voting process:

• Voting is done by bonded Atom holders on a 1 bonded Atom 1 vote basis
• Delegators inherit the vote of their validator if they don't vote
• Validators MUST vote on every proposal. If a validator does not vote on a proposal, they will be partially slashed
• Votes are tallied at the end of the voting period (2 weeks on mainnet). Each address can vote multiple times to update its Option value (paying the transaction fee each time), only the last casted vote will count as valid
• Voters can choose between options Yes, No, NoWithVeto and Abstain At the end of the voting period, a proposal is accepted if (YesVotes/(YesVotes+NoVotes+NoWithVetoVotes))>1/2 and (NoWithVetoVotes/(YesVotes+NoVotes+NoWithVetoVotes))<1/3. It is rejected otherwise

For more information about the governance process and how it works, please check out the Governance module specification.

Create a Governance proposal

In order to create a governance proposal, you must submit an initial deposit along with the proposal details:

• title: Title of the proposal
• description: Description of the proposal
• type: Type of proposal. Must be of value Text (types SoftwareUpgrade and ParameterChange not supported yet).

gaiacli gov submit-proposal \
  --title=<title> \
  --description=<description> \
  --type=<Text/ParameterChange/SoftwareUpgrade> \
  --proposer=<account_cosmosaccaddr> \
  --deposit=<40steak> \
  --from=<name> \
  --chain-id=gaia-7001

Increase deposit

In order for a proposal to be broadcasted to the network, the amount deposited must be above a minDeposit value (default: 10 steak). If the proposal you previously created didn't meet this requirement, you can still increase the total amount deposited to activate it. Once the minimum deposit is reached, the proposal enters voting period:

gaiacli gov deposit \
  --proposalID=<proposal_id> \
  --depositer=<account_cosmosaccaddr> \
  --deposit=<200steak> \
  --from=<name> \
  --chain-id=gaia-7001

Note

: Proposals that don't meet this requirement will be deleted after MaxDepositPeriod is reached.

Query proposal

Once created, you can now query information of the proposal:

gaiacli gov query-proposal \
  --proposalID=<proposal_id> \
  --chain-id=gaia-7001

Vote on a proposal

After a proposal's deposit reaches the MinDeposit value, the voting period opens. Bonded Atom holders can then cast vote on it:

gaiacli gov vote \
  --proposalID=<proposal_id> \
  --voter=<account_cosmosaccaddr> \
  --option=<Yes/No/NoWithVeto/Abstain> \
  --from=<name> \
  --chain-id=gaia-7001

Query vote

Check the vote with the option you just submitted:

gaiacli gov query-vote \
  --proposalID=<proposal_id> \
  --voter=<account_cosmosaccaddr> \
  --chain-id=gaia-7001